Holocaust-Era Assets Finding Aid

Civilian Agency Records

State Department and Foreign Affairs Records

Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department
of State (RG 84)

Great Britain

Great Britain, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, declared war on Germany
on September 3, 1939. In May 1940, Chamberlain was replaced by Winston
Churchill. During the next five years Great Britain extended considerable
resources to defeat the Axis. In 1939 the British held half the foreign
investments in the world. By the time the war concluded the British were
in debt. (Note 69)

The British government agreed before the war that the conduct of all operations
of economic warfare should be in the hands of a single, independent Ministry,
the Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW), which was accordingly established on
September 3, 1939. This was unlike the American economic warfare activities
which were placed in the hands of numerous Federal agencies.

The first step in the operations of the MEW was to establish the blockade of
Germany. Besides the blockade the British took measures to restrict the
flow of good into Germany by means of control at the source. Exports from
the Commonwealth and Empire were subject to licensing control from early in
the war and in January 1940 the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation was established
to make pre-emptive purchases of strategic goods to prevent them from falling
into enemy hands and this practice was greatly extended from the summer of 1940.
The United States government would take similar measure once it entered the
war.

The United Kingdom Commercial Corporation handled the purchase and sale of
goods from neutral countries, particularly Turkey, Spain, and Portugal.
In the case of some neutral countries the British negotiated a War Trade Agreement
by which the neutral would undertake to limit the sale of specified goods to
Germany in exchange for an undertaking by the United Kingdom to facilitate its
imports. In other cases to prevent re-export to Germany by neutral countries
their imports were subjected to a compulsory rationing scheme introduced at
the same time as the other stricter controls. These blockade measures
led to pressures arising from allegations of deprivation of the inhabitants
of enemy-occupied territories as a result of which the Ministry eventually became
concerned in relief shipments by the Red Cross.

Enemy exports were placed under an embargo in November 1939. Cargoes
from neutral or allied countries could be provided by British Missions abroad
with passes or certificates of origin.

The Intelligence Division was at first responsible for the collation and interpretation
of all kinds of economically important information. A section of the Division
was responsible for collecting evidence about firms and individuals suspected
to have dealings with the enemy with a view to their being placed on the Statutory
List of Black List. British firms were prohibited by the Trading with
the Enemy Act operated by the Board of Trade and the Treasury from dealing with
such firms and the lists were also used as evidence by the Contraband and Enemy
Exports Committee. The placing of names on the lists was under the control
of the Black List Committee which included representatives of the Admiralty,
the Ministry of Shipping and, later on, of the United States. These aspects
of æblockade intelligence" later became the responsibility of Records
and Statistics Department in the General Branch of the Ministry while the Enemy
branch concentrated on "economic warfare intelligence," including the financial
side of economic warfare.

The development of contacts between the Enemy branch and the Armed Services,
first in the Joint Intelligence Committee and then with the Services individually,
was but one example of the close relations of the MEW with other departments.
The Foreign Office, which was one of its parents, was always closely concerned
with economic warfare questions and particularly with their political aspects.
It was the recipient of frequent complaints from neutral countries about the
application of economic controls and advised on the limits to which such controls
could prudently be extended. Its missions abroad carried out economic
warfare functions.

Pre-emptive purchases when also required for supply were carried out by the
Board of Trade, the Ministry of Food or the Ministry of Supply as appropriate.
The Economic Warfare Division of the Admiralty operated the Contraband Control
Service, while the Treasury and the Board of Trade were jointly responsible
for the Trading with the Enemy Branch. These two departments concerned
themselves with the financial and commercial repercussions of economic warfare
activities.

MEW played a leading part in the Economic and Industrial Planning Staff, an
interdepartmental body set up early in 1944 to study the economic plans for
liberated or occupied territories in Europe. In October 1945 work in respect
to Germany and Austria was passed to the newly- established Control Office for
those countries.

The Ministry was represented in a number of foreign countries by Co-ordinating
Centers whose function it was to accumulate information about suspect firms
and individuals in those countries but its representation in the United States
by the War Trade Department in the embassy was by far the most important part
of its overseas organization both before and after the United States entered
the war.

The Ministry was active in Safehaven-related activities and produced many reports
on enemy assets, as well as participated in Safehaven negotiations with neutrals
countries. (Note 70) Indeed, the United States
and British governments worked very closely regarding economic warfare and Safehaven
matters. And the London Embassy was a key location for Safehaven-related
activity.

As the Safehaven program developed, especially as its instrumentation came
to depend upon the negotiation of treaties between the Government of the United
States and individual neutrals, or between the British and American Governments
and the neutrals, the American Embassy in London became the chief center of
the program's activities in Europe.

The Economic Warfare Division of the Embassy was organized in March 1942, "to
establish a more intimate liaison between the manifold economic warfare activities
centered in the Ministry of Economic Warfare (BEW) and comparable activities
in the United States Government." (Note 71) The
division developed as an operating agency, taking active part in programs, after
the termination of the war, became of special significance in the Safehaven
program. For example, the division assisted in the formulation of the
Blockade program, its personnel being represented on the Blockade Committee
on equal terms with the British. This committee dealt with the concrete
job of handling permits and of defining contraband. The work of its membership
based on data furnished by other agencies of government resulted in the Proclaimed
Lists--important themselves for Safehaven program purposes.

The division worked with MEW in planning new war trade agreements. As
early as 1942 the British and Americans started conversations with Sweden and
Switzerland relative to re- negotiating purchase-supply contracts on the basis
of Allied war needs and war aims.

The division also had a Pre-Emptive Committee, (Note 72)
its chief concern being to watch matters pertaining to the preclusive purchase
program undertaken by the United States Commercial Company, and the United Kingdom
Commercial Corporation in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and the Near East. (Note 73)

The Division's Enemy Objectives Unit, staffed with Office of Economic Warfare
and Office of Strategic Services personnel (Note 74),
was responsible for procuring, analyzing, and distributing economic intelligence
procurable in Great Britain and in Europe and desired by processing and operating
agencies in Washington, DC.

When the Safehaven program began to operate in a practical way--intelligence
gathering in neutral Europe and trade negotiations with neutrals for Safehaven
objectives, the American Embassy in London became the clearing house between
the United States and its operators in Europe. Cables for agents in the
neutral countries and from them, clearing through the Embassy. The staff
there acted in both directive and advisory capacities. With the end of
the war, the Embassy became the focal point for negotiations between civilian
operating agencies of the United States and the American Military Government
of Germany and Italy. (Note 75)

John Gilbert Winant
served as the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain in 1941, and served in
that capacity until 1946.
Boxes 1-8
Box# File Title
1 Economic Matters
2 Germany
3 Jews
5 Palestine
5 Portugal
6 Refugees
8 World Jewish Congress